1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to sanitary fixtures. Specifically, it relates to bathtubs and whirlpool type bathtubs of integral construction especially adapted for use in combination with a mobile patient lift by invalids or other physically handicapped persons.
2. Description of Related Art
Personal hygiene and hydrotherapy are important to the general health and recovery of invalids, other seriously physically handicapped patients, and generally physically weak or frail persons. Health care workers, such as nurses, hospital aides, nursing home staff, or home health aides, assist in transferring these patients from their beds to the bathtub or whirlpool using a mobile patient lift. Patient lifts and bathtubs have been designed so that it is unnecessary for the patient to disembark the lift before getting into the bathtub. The Arjo fixed height bathtub and Lift Hygiene Chair mobile patient lift is one example of a system that can be used in this manner. Both devices are available from Arjo Hospital Equipment AB of Sweden or Arjo Inc. of Morton Grove, Ill. Such bathtub/lift systems can reduce the risk that the patient will slip or fall during the transfer. They also reduce the risk of lower back injury or other serious occupational injury to the health care worker.
The Arjo mobile patient lift and bathtub are used in the following manner. The patient is placed on the chair-like patient support of the lift and wheeled to the side rather than the end of the bathtub. The patient sits sideways in the patient support so that he is facing an end of the bathtub, such as the drain end. The lift mechanism is actuated to raise the patient above the side wall of the bathtub. Once the side wall has been cleared, the lift is placed closer to the bathtub so that a portion of the lift's mobile undercarriage is positioned directly beneath the sump and the patient is directly above the sump.
This positioning is possible because the sump of the Arjo fixed height bathtub does not rest on the floor like a conventional residential style bathtub. Instead, the sump is supported from below by sturdy, exposed horizontal support beams and vertical posts. The horizontal beams are elevated a sufficient distance above the floor so that the support legs and front wheels of the undercarriage portion of the lift can easily be positioned below the sump. Once positioned above the sump, the patient and support are then together lowered into the sump. Following the bath or hydrotherapy, the process is reversed to return the patient to bed.
Delivery of health care in a hospital, nursing home, or other institutional setting is very expensive compared to recuperation or therapy at home. There is a continuing effort to reduce health care costs by discharging patients from the hospital to their homes as soon as possible. For those invalids who can otherwise be cared for at home rather than in a hospital or other institution, bathing and/or hydrotherapy present a serious impediment to health care cost reduction: Most residential bathrooms are either too small to accommodate the bathtubs adapted for use with a mobile patient lift or patients are reluctant to abandon their stylish, colorful, and aesthetically pleasing residential style bathtubs for a more expensive bathtub having an institutional appearance. These residential style bathtubs and whirlpool type bathtubs do not accommodate the positioning of the undercarriage of the lift underneath the sump bottom so that the patient can be positioned above the sump.
The prior art describes various solutions to the problem of transferring an invalid into a bathtub or whirlpool, but none is directed to a residential rather than institutional style bathtub especially adapted for use with a mobile patient lift in a typical residential bathroom of limited size.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,569 to Von Ardenne et al., "Lifting Device for Lifting a Patient Treated in a Bathtub," describes a front-loading lift with a mobile undercarriage adapted to fit under the end, rather than the side, of a tub. Such an arrangement would require a very wide bathroom. Furthermore, the bathtub is not adapted for use of a side-loading lift such as the Arjo lift describe above.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,304 to Loren, "Bathing Device for Invalided Person" describes a patient lift and an institutional style bathtub. The patient lift is not mobile. Instead, it is attached to the bathtub.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,216 to Burgess et al., "Whirlpool Bath," describes raising a whirlpool bathtub above the floor level onto a recessed steel base. The 83/4 in. vertical clearance provided by the base provides a channel beneath the tub on three sides allowing a front-loading type mobile lift to be moved directly underneath the end rather than the side of the tub. Accordingly, as with the Von Ardenne invention, the bathroom must be quite large to accommodate positioning the large front-loading type mobile lift adjacent the end of the bathtub. The entire tub structure rests on the base by means of a plurality of I-beams which traverse the narrower dimension of the base. The Burgess invention is specifically designed for use in the hospital or institutional setting. The Burgess whirlpool does not resemble a whirlpool that one would expect to be accepted in a residential environment in part because it rests on an elevated and recessed steel base rather than directly on the floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,501 to Marsilio describes a molded bathtub having an apron which terminates above, below, or at about the level of the lowest level of the reservoir or sump. U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,982 to Genovese et al., "Multi-Layer Composite Structure," shows an enameled-steel bathtub having an apron which terminates at a level below the lowest level of the sump, but the patent does not describe or suggest any benefit in having this configuration. It does not describe how far below the lowest level of the sump the apron should terminate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,575 to Cartwright, "Portable Bathing Unit," describes a molded bathtub mounted on a portable frame having casters. Rather than transporting the bedridden patient to the bath, this patent describes bringing the portable bath to the vicinity of the patient. The patient is transferred to the bath using a mobile patient hoist. The casters elevate the bathtub's frame high enough above the floor to permit the legs of the mobile patient hoist to pass underneath. The patent notes that conventional bathtubs typically are not elevated and, hence, do not allow the legs of the patient hoist to pass underneath.
There continues to be a need for sanitary fixtures, e.g., bathtubs and whirlpools, that resemble conventional, floor mounted fixtures of integral construction which are adapted for use with a mobile patient lift in the bathroom of the patient's home.